Monthly Archives: March 2017

In an international conference, organised by Working with Cultural Objects and Manuscripts (WCOM), which will take place at the National Museum of Finland, Helsinki, on June 5-6, 2017, the topic of trafficked cultural objects in Finland is adressed. This in order to generate awareness and kick-start a national debate. The conference is organised with funding…

The annual meeting of the Centre for Digital Heritage (CDH) will take place at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University on 15-16 June 201. The theme will be Heritage under Threat. During two days, five keynotes, 19 papers and seven posters on this topic will be presented. For a list of accepted papers and further…

In a joint US-UK initiative financed by the SmartWater Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of the international crime-fighting company, SmartWater, a team of undercover operatives and trained Syrian Archaeologists have successfully applied SmartWater’s unique ‘traceable liquid’ to some of Syria’s most treasured historical artifacts, including two precious mosaics from the UNESCO World Heritage designated site of…

A whole illegal excavation campaign was reported by tourists and locals in Noto/Siracusa (Sicily), Italy. A Greek cemetery in the region of Eloro, a few kilometres from Noto, was completely robbed. Excavators and other heavy equipment was used to reach the objects buried in the tombs in order to sell them later on the international…

As recently reported, an Etruscan vessel dating from 470 BC was seized at Royal Athena Galleries, New York. The vessel, which was valued at $ 250,000, was seized by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and will be now returned to Italy. It was already formally returned to the Italian consul general in New York, Francesco…

At this year’s annual conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Maastricht, our Committee organises a Round Table on ‘Archaeology on sale: how to prevent official selling of illegally excavated objects?‘ You can find the abstract of our Round Table here. Archaeology on sale. We welcome any contribution to our session. If you’re interested,…

Carabinieri seized five archaeological objects dating to the 7th-3rd century BC which were in private possession in Tarquinia. The owner did not declare the possession of the objects to the soprintendenza. The objects are currently catalogued and their value estimated. The seizure of the objects is part of a bigger investigation on illegal excavation and…